“When a man is tired of London, is tired of life,” said Samuel Johnson in his famous line. London’s remarkable history, architecture, landmarks, streets, style, moderns, sufferers, and passionate residents are depicted in hundreds of fascinating photographs drawn from a wide variety of archives around the world in the book ‘London Portrait of a City » by Reuel Golden, from TASCHEN. London is a vast metropolis, constantly evolving and developing, but throughout its complex past and changing present, the humor, uniqueness, and bulldog spirit of the people have remained constant. This book salutes all these Londoners, their city, and its history. In addition to the wealth of images contained within, many previously unpublished, London’s story is told through hundreds of excerpts, lively essays, and references from major films, books, and records.

From Victorian London to the Swinging 60s, the Battle of Britain to Punk, from the Festival of Britain to the 2012 Olympics. From the foggy cobbled streets to the architectural masterpieces of the millennium. From folk pubs to private clubs. From royal weddings to raves, from the glamour of the East End to the wonders of Westminster. From Chelsea girls to Hoxton hipsters. From power to glory: page after page of stunning photographs, reproduced as big and bold as the city itself, London is finally getting the photographic tribute it deserves.

Photos: Slim Aarons, Eve Arnold, David Bailey, Cecil Beaton, Bill Brandt, Alvin Langdon Coburn, Anton Corbijn, Terence Donovan, Roger Fenton, Bert Hardy, Evelyn Hofer, Frank Horvat, Tony Ray-Jones, Nadav Kander, Roger Mayne, Linda McCartney, Don McCullin, Norman Parkinson, Martin Parr, Rankin, Lord Snowdon, William Henry Fox Talbot, Juergen Teller, Mario Testino, Wolfgang Tillmans and many, many more.

Reuel Golden is the former editor of the British Journal of Photography and the Photography editor at TASCHEN. His titles at TASCHEN include: Mick Rock: The Rise of David Bowie, London and New York books Portrait of a City, The Rolling Stones, Her Majesty, Football in the 1970s, National Geographic publications, David Bailey SUMO and Andy Warhol. Polaroids.